| [Edit]
|
The Dogwoods comprise a group of 30-50 species of deciduous woody plants (shrubs and trees) in the family Cornaceae, divided into one to nine genera or subgenera (depending on botanical interpretation). Four subgenera are enumerated here.
Flower clusters semi-showy, usually white or yellow, in cymes without large showy bracts, fruit red, blue or white:
(Sub)genus Cornus. Cornels; four species of shrubs or small trees; flower clusters with a deciduous involucre.
(Sub)genus Swida. Dogwoods; about 20-30 species of shrubs; flower clusters without an involucre.
Cornus amomum (Swida amomum; Silky Dogwood). Eastern U.S. east of the Great Plains except for deep south, and extreme southeast Canada.
Cornus glabrata (Swida glabrata; Brown Dogwood or Smooth Dogwood). Western North America.
Flower clusters inconspicuous, usually greenish, surrounded by large, showy petal-like bracts; fruit usually red:
(Sub)genus Chamaepericlymenum. Bunchberries or Dwarf cornels; two species of creeping subshrubs growing from woody stolons.
Cornus × unalaschkensis (hybrid C. canadensis × C. suecica). Aleutian Islands, Greenland, Labrador.
(Sub)genus Benthamidia (syn. subgenus Dendrobenthamia, subgenus Cynoxylon). Flowering dogwoods; five species of trees.
Most species have opposite leaves, but alternate in a few. The fruit of all species is a drupe with one or two seeds. Flowers have four parts.
Many species in subgenus Swida are stoloniferous shrubs, growing along waterways. Several of these are used for naturalizing landscape plantings, especially the species with bright red or bright yellow stems. Most of the species in subgenus Benthamidia are small trees used as ornamental plants.
The name 'dogwood' is a corruption of 'dagwood', from the use of the slender stems of very hard wood for making 'dags' (daggers, skewers). The wood was also highly prized for making the shuttles of looms, for tool handles, and other small items that required a very hard and strong wood.
The fruit of several species in the subgenera Cornus and Benthamidia is edible, though without much flavour. The berries of those in subgenus Swida are mildly toxic to people, though readily eaten by birds. Dogwoods are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Emperor Moth, The Engrailed, Small Angle Shades and the following case-bearers of the genus Coleophora: C. ahenella, C. salicivorella (recorded on Cornus canadensis), C. albiantennaella, C. cornella and C. cornivorella (The latter three feed exclusively on Cornus).
The dogwood is the provincial flower of the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The dogwood (Cornus florida) is the state flower and the state tree for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.
The term dogwood winter may be used to describe a cold snap in spring.
Popular legend has it that wood from the dogwood was used to construct the cross on which Christ was crucified. God had pity upon the tree, giving it white flowers similar to the cross. The reddish center of each flower symbolizes the blood of Christ. God transformed the once towering tree into one that is small with twisted, gnarled trunks so they could never be used for the purpose of building a cross again.
|
Dogwood
| | Name | Dogwood | | image |  | | Regnum | Plantae | | Divisio | Flowering plant | | Classis | Magnoliopsida | | Ordo | Cornales | | Familia | Cornaceae | | Genus | Cornus | | Subdivision Ranks | Subgenera | | Subdivision | Subgenera |
| |
|
|
